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Burning steel wool results in an increase in mass- due to a synthesis reaction

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Description: This is an excellent phenomenon to discuss chemical reactions and the conservation of mass. Steel wool is burned leading to an increase in mass. When doing this in class show the students the burning steel wool to begin with and have them predict the change in mass. Most students believe the mass will either increase or decrease. This phenomenon can be used at the beginning of a unit on chemical reactions and students can investigate their individual models. (e.g. mass comes from fire, oxygen, carbon, etc.)
Web Resources: Combustion of Iron Wool - CFNS Experiment 36

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Description: This is an excellent phenomenon to discuss chemical reactions and the conservation of mass. Steel wool is burned leading to an increase in mass. When doing this in class show the students the burning steel wool to begin with and have them predict the change in mass.

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In this high school physical sciences unit, students investigate why some substances absorb heat when they react, while others release it. Students first solve the mystery of where energy goes in endothermic reactions by examining salt dissolution and using magnets as models for bonds. They then expand their investigations to look into where the energy comes from in exothermic reactions. The model they continue to develop with magnets helps students account for why breaking bonds absorbs energy from the surroundings while forming bonds releases energy into the surroundings. The end of the unit naturally motivates a new question to pursue in future units, “Why are some types of particles more attracted to one another than others?"

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What students figure out:

By the end of the unit, students develop ideas about chemical reactions, structures and properties of matter, and the relationship between energy and forces. These ideas include:

A stable molecule has less energy than the same set of atoms separated; one must at least provide this energy to take the molecules apart.

When two objects interacting through a field change relative position, the energy stored in the field is changed.

Whether or not energy is stored or released in a chemical process, can be understood in terms of the collisions of molecules and rearrangements of atoms into new molecules, with consequent changes in the sum of all bond energies in the set of molecules that are matched by changes in kinetic energy.

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Why Do Some Things Get Colder (or Hotter) When They React? - Next Generation science storylines

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By the end of the unit, students develop ideas about chemical reactions, structures and properties of matter, and the relationship between energy and forces. These ideas include: A stable molecule has less energy than the same set of atoms separated; one must at least provide this energy to take the molecules apart.

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Why Don't Antibiotics Work Like They Used To?

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Why Don't Antibiotics Work Like They Used To?

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This high school unit on natural selection and evolution starts out with students exploring the case of a young girl with a life-threatening infection of pan-resistant bacteria. This case sparks questions that lead them to investigate the growing prevalence of such cases and discrepancies between antibiotic use in their communities and CDC recommendations. As they develop a model to explain how bacteria populations change over time, students expand their investigations to look at whether similar population changes are occurring in a population of birds

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Why Don't Antibiotics Work Like They Used To? - Next Generation Science Storylines

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This high school unit on natural selection and evolution starts out with students exploring the case of a young girl with a life-threatening infection of pan-resistant bacteria. This case sparks questions that lead them to investigate the growing prevalence of such cases and discrepancies between antibiotic use in their communities and CDC recommendations.

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How Do Small Changes Make Big Impacts on Ecosystems?

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How Do Small Changes Make Big Impacts on Ecosystems?

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Students start out examining data of the buffalo population in the Serengeti over the past fifty years. Competing ideas for why the population skyrocketed in a short period of time and then collapsed sometime later motivates students to investigate a variety of additional data sources. Exploration of each new data source raises further questions, and more potential suspects to investigate. As each new suspect is tracked down (resource competition, climate change, seasonal rainfall patterns, predators, disease, and fire), students incrementally develop a more and more complex ecosystem model that accounts for why some populations grow, some collapse, and others remain stable in the same ecosystem.

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High School - Next Generation Science Storylines

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In this first part of a two-part high school ecosystems unit, students investigate the claim that planting trees can help combat climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and storing carbon in wood.

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Water molecules are observed at various temperatures.  It can be observed that one side of the molecule is negative and one side is positive and that the positive and negative charges attempt to align themselves.  This could be a great simulation to introduce polarity.  Students may be given time to play around with the simulation and then be asked to determine what is causing this difference in charge distribution.

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Students progress through this interactive simulation in which they learn about ionic bonds and how ionic solids form crystals.  This could be used as a follow up (explore) to the phenomenon “Why can’t we melt salt?”

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This interactive activity from ChemThink discusses ionic bonding-a type of chemical bond formed between two ions with opposite charges. Investigate how the transfer of electrons between atoms creates ions and how the mutual attraction of these charged particles forms ionic bonds.

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5 minute video discussing how the properties of adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension of water cause Cheerios to stick together or to the sides of the bowl in a bowl of cereal.  Could be used as a phenomenon for introducing intermolecular forces.

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Students build phylogenetic trees using information about different related species.  It’s a great interactive tool for students to learn the connection between genetics and evolution.

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Evolution Lab | NOVA | PBS LearningMedia

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NOVA Labs is a new digital platform where "citizen scientists" can actively participate in the scientific process and take part in real-world investigations by visualizing, analyzing, and playing with the same data that scientists use. Each NOVA Lab is unique, and focuses on a different area of active research.

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Video: Whiteboard ink floats on water- does not dissolve- different polarities

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Description:
I learned about this phenomenon when a teacher spilled their water on my whiteboard. Make sure to use a plate with an impermeable surface. It's a great phenomenon for intermolecular forces. Surface chemistry, temperature, color, ink type, polarity, salinity, and many more factors affect this phenomenon.

Web Resources: Drawing on Water - It is so surreal - YouTube

Tagged: hs-matter-structure-and-properties, HS-PS1-3, cool, 5-PS1-1

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Floating Whiteboard Ink - The Wonder of Science

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Description : I learned about this phenomenon when a teacher spilled their water on my whiteboard. Make sure to use a plate with an impermeable surface. It's a great phenomenon for intermolecular forces. Surface chemistry, temperature, color, ink type, polarity, salinit

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Video: Dropping mentos into diet coke causes the carbon dioxide in the soda to escape the bottle very quickly due to the microscopic bumps on the Mentos candy.

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This site is a curated collection of science phenomena for the NGSS, along with phenomenon based learning resources and help for how to use phenomenon to drive student questions in the classroom centered around 3 dimensional teaching and learning.

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Game from NOVA which enables students to build molecules of RNA and interact with them to build a protein.

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Play the role of a molecular engineer by solving RNA folding puzzles in this interactive game from the NOVA RNA Lab. Then take your skills to Eterna, where you can design RNAs that could be at the heart of future life-saving therapies.

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This simulation allows students to observe what happens to water molecules as they go from solid to liquid to gas.  This could be used as a way to demonstrate that temperature is defined as average kinetic energy or to present the phenomenon that the temperature of water does not change when a phase change is occurring.

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Melting and Boiling Simulation | PBS LearningMedia

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Observe the motion and temperature of water molecules in this simulation as heat is applied to a beaker containing an ice cube. As the ice cube melts, the water molecules are freed from their trapped state and can now roam about the glass beaker as a liquid.

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Video: The "runner's high" is a feeling of euphoria that occurs during and after strenuous exercise. Research has show that this occurs when endorphins are released in the peripheral nervous system and eventually bind to receptors in the brain. Endorphins are mainly used to block pain in the body.

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Description: The "runner's high" is a feeling of euphoria that occurs during and after strenuous exercise. Research has show that this occurs when endorphins are released in the peripheral nervous system and eventually bind to receptors in the brain. Endorphins are mainly used to block pain in the body. This could be used as a phenomenon related to homeostasis and interacting body systems.
Web Resource: Neurobiological Effects of Physical Exercise - Wikipedia

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Description: The "runner's high" is a feeling of euphoria that occurs during and after strenuous exercise. Research has show that this occurs when endorphins are released in the peripheral nervous system and eventually bind to receptors in the brain. Endorphins are main

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Students are presented with a cell membrane with various embedded proteins (aquaporins, ion channels, GLUT transporters, etc.) They click on various molecules (o2, co2, glucose, sodium, potassium) and see how they are transported (either straight through the lipids, through channels, exocytosis).  It is a way for them to explore the various forms of transport and which molecules require energy in order to enter the cell.

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Cell Membrane: Just Passing Through | PBS LearningMedia

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At any one time, a dozen different types of materials may be passing through the membrane of a cell. The job of the membrane is to regulate this movement in order to maintain the proper balance of ions, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and other molecules.

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Students can manipulate the color of the environment (brown or white) and the color of bunnies (brown or white) and then introduce either a predator or limited food and observe what happens to the ratio of brown to white bunnies over time.

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Students go on a virtual expedition to discover how the poles are the keys to learning more about Earth and climate change.

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Something big is happening to Earth's climate, and the polar regions hold the key to understanding it. Join top scientists on the hunt for clues that tell a surprising story about our planet's past...and preview where we might be headed.

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Join scientists on a quest to discover what Earth's climate was like in the past - and where we might be headed.

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Students look at five different tissue samples under a virtual microscope: cartilage, liver, stomach, fat, and heart muscle.  Great way to observe how structure relates to function!

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Students learn the pathway food takes through the digestive system and view real images of what the organs look like from the inside

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Students increase the temperature of a liquid and observe what happens to the speed and motion of the particles.  Can be used to investigate the phenomenon of a reaction occurring at a faster rate at a higher temperature.

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Simulations & Videos for Lesson 1.2: Molecules in Motion - American Chemical Society

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American Chemical Society: Chemistry for Life.

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Students manipulate iron and brick, can heat up the objects, use a thermometer to determine temperature and then observe how the heat gets transferred (from the hotter object to colder object).

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Students can manipulate variables (pressure, temperature, and volume) and observe how the variables are related to one another in order to determine the various gas laws.  Great to use as an intro to each gas law…have students determine relationships themselves and then practice calculations.

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NOAA: Understanding Coastal and Ocean Acidification

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NOAA: Understanding Coastal and Ocean Acidification

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Students progress through a series of 5 levels of increasing difficulty in which they analyze graphs of atmospheric CO2 levels over time, ocean pH levels over time, and analyze ocean pH levels near the coast in order to learn about the impact of global warming on ocean pH levels.  Student worksheets for each level are provided.  Also great for differentiation!

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Understanding Ocean & Coastal Acidification: Teacher Resources

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Understanding Ocean & Coastal Acidification: Teacher Resources

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Investigating Coral Bleaching Using Data in the Classroom

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Investigating Coral Bleaching Using Data in the Classroom

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Students progress through a series of 5 levels of increasing difficulty in which they analyze maps of coral reefs, graphs of “degree heating weeks” and make observations about the appearance of reefs in various locations in order to learn about the impact of rising ocean temperatures on coral reef ecosystems.  This activity is great for differentiation as students of varying ability levels will have different expectations for how many levels to complete.

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This story map requires JavaScript, but running JavaScript is not currently allowed by your web browser. If you wish to view this story, please enable JavaScript in this browser or try a different browser.

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This story map requires JavaScript, but running JavaScript is not currently allowed by your web browser. If you wish to view this story, please enable JavaScript in this browser or try a different browser.

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STEMonstrations: Surface Tension of Water in Space

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STEMonstrations: Surface Tension of Water in Space

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Video of an astronaut demonstrating surface tension of water in space.  Activity in which students place drops

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Surface Tension of water plays a unique role in living and working aboard the International Space Station. Watch Expedition 55/56 Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold demonstrate how water's molecular properties behave in microgravity.

Classroom Connection: Surface Tension

Grade Level: 6-12

Time Required: 50 minutes
Next Generation Science Standards:
HS-PS1-3. Plan and conduct an investigation to gather evidence to compare the structure of substances at the bulk scale to infer the strength of electrical forces between particles.

MS-PS1-2. Analyze and interpret data on the properties of substances before and after the substances interact to determine if a chemical reaction has occurred.

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Astronaut and former educator Ricky Arnold explains and demonstrates surface tension while he orbits Earth aboard the space station.

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Spacecraft Materials and the Chemistry of Space Exploration

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Spacecraft Materials and the Chemistry of Space Exploration

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Students place different metals into solutions of copper (II) sulfate and rank their reactivity.  Used to determine which metal should be used to create a spacecraft that will be going to a planet containing large amounts of copper (II) sulfate.

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Construct and revise an explanation for the outcome of a simple chemical reaction based on the outermost electron states of atoms, trends in the periodic table, and knowledge of the patterns of chemical properties

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Educator Guide: Spacecraft Materials and the Chemistry of Space Exploration | NASA/JPL Edu

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Construct and revise an explanation for the outcome of a simple chemical reaction based on the outermost electron states of atoms, trends in the periodic table, and knowledge of the patterns of chemical properties

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Students set up a simple experiment by filling a water bottle to the top with water, inserting a straw, and placing the water bottle near a heat source.  Students measure the height of the water in the straw and the temperature of the water.

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Sea level rise is caused by several different processes, including melting ice. But one big contributor to sea level rise is increasing global temperatures, which heat seas and cause something called thermal expansion of water. Thermal expansion happens when water gets warmer, which causes the volume of the water to increase. About half of the measured global sea level rise on Earth is from warming waters and thermal expansion.

You can see how this process works by building a model using everyday items to demonstrate that water expands when heat energy is added.

Watch the Tutorial

See below for materials and step-by-step instructions. For more video tutorials and activities like this one, visit Learning Space.

Watch en Español: Seleccione subtítulos en Español bajo el ícono de configuración.

In this episode of Learning Space, you'll do an experiment to see how water volume increases when the temperature of the water increases. Then explore how this process is contributing to sea level rise. | Watch on YouTube

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Student Project: How Warming Water Causes Sea Level Rise | NASA/JPL Edu

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Sea level rise is caused by several different processes, including melting ice. But one big contributor to sea level rise is increasing global temperatures, which heat seas and cause something called thermal expansion of water. Thermal expansion happens when water gets warmer, which causes the volume of the water to increase.

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Students can alter a segment of DNA, then transcribe and translate it to observe the effect on the final protein product.

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Mutations are mistakes in the DNA sequence. Use the Edit DNA button to change the entire sequence or click on an...

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Diffusion Across a Semipermeable Membrane

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Diffusion Across a Semipermeable Membrane

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Students set the concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide on both sides of a plasma membrane as either “low” or “high” and then observe what happens when the molecules are permitted to move freely.

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Cell membranes are composed of two layers of phospholipids (a phospholipid bilayer). Some molecules are capable of...

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Hydrogen Bonds: A Special Kind of Attraction

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Hydrogen Bonds: A Special Kind of Attraction

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Students can observe the dipoles on a water molecule and how adjacent dipoles interact with one another.  Temperature and speed can be manipulated.

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Hydrogen Bonds: A Special Type of Attraction

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Explore hydrogen bonds forming between polar molecules, such as water. Hydrogen bonds are shown with dotted lines. Show...

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Students place their hands on different materials (wood, styrofoam, plastic, metal, etc.) and rank them in terms of their apparent temperature.  Then they use an infrared thermometer to measure the temperature of each material, only to find they are all at room temperature.

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The temperature-sensitive nerve endings in your skin detect the difference between your inside body temperature and your outside skin temperature. When your skin cools down, your temperature-sensitive nerves tell you that the object you are touching is cold. An object that feels cold must be colder than your hand, and it must carry your body heat away so that your skin cools down.

Styrofoam (or plastic foam) and metal are two materials that work well for this activity. They both start at room temperature and are both colder than your hand. They do not feel equally cold because they carry heat away from your hand at different rates.

Styrofoam is an insulator-a very poor conductor of heat. When your hand touches the Styrofoam, heat flows from your hand to the Styrofoam and warms the Styrofoam surface. Because this heat is not conducted away quickly, the surface of the Styrofoam soon becomes as warm as your hand, so little or no additional heat leaves your hand. There is no difference in temperature between the inside of your body and the outside of your skin, so the temperature-sensitive nerves detect no difference in temperature. The Styrofoam feels warm.

The metal, in contrast, is a good conductor of heat-it carries heat away quickly. Heat flows from your hand into the metal and then is conducted rapidly away into the bulk of the metal, leaving the metal surface and your skin surface relatively cool. That's why metal feels cool.

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The temperature-sensitive nerve endings in your skin detect the difference between your inside body temperature and your outside skin temperature. When your skin cools down, your temperature-sensitive nerves tell you that the object you are touching is cold.

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Sizing Up Temperature: Explore Charles’ Law in a Syringe

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Sizing Up Temperature: Explore Charles’ Law in a Syringe

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Quick Lab on Charles’ Law: Students submerge syringes of room temperature water into beakers of water of various temperatures (cold, cool, warm, hot) and record the volume change in the syringe.

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Charles's Law states that, at a fixed pressure, the volume of a given amount of gas is directly proportional to its temperature. This means that if the temperature of a gas increases, its volume should as well.

By leaving an air gap in the syringe barrel, you trapped a fixed amount of gas. Initially, the system is balanced, and water will not move in or out of the syringe unless there's a new force. When the trapped air increases or decreases in volume due to a change in temperature, water acts as a piston, moving in or out through the tip until the pressure is equalized.

You should have noticed that the volume of air in the syringe barrel changed when you brought it to a different temperature. By plotting volume versus temperature on a graph, you may also have noticed that the points tend to line up along a straight line. You could represent the equation of the line as V = kT, where V is the volume, T is the temperature, and k is a constant (the slope of the line). This is the mathematical representation of Charles's Law.

Charles's Law can be combined with Boyle's Law (which relates pressure, P, and volume, V), Gay-Lussac's Law (which relates temperature, T, and pressure, P), and Avogadro's law (which relates volume, V, and the amount of gas in moles, n) to form the ideal gas law: pV = nRT.

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Charles's Law states that, at a fixed pressure, the volume of a given amount of gas is directly proportional to its temperature. This means that if the temperature of a gas increases, its volume should as well. By leaving an air gap in the syringe barrel, you trapped a fixed amount of gas.

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Boyle-ing Water: Watch Water Boil at Room Temperature

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Boyle-ing Water: Watch Water Boil at Room Temperature

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Room temperature water is placed in a syringe.  As the pressure is increased on the syringe, bubbles will begin to form in the liquid.

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Not only does the water in your syringe appear to be boiling, it is boiling.

Living as we do at typical atmospheric pressures, we tend to think that water has to be hot to boil. But the transition from liquid to gas can occur not just as the result of increased temperature, but also as the result of decreased pressure.

Pulling on the plunger reduces the pressure on the gases inside the syringe by increasing the volume-a relationship given by Boyle's Law: For a gas in an enclosed space at a constant temperature, volume and pressure vary inversely. In other words, doubling the volume halves the pressure.

Tap water has air dissolved in it. When you reduce the pressure in the syringe by pulling out the plunger, the dissolved air comes out of solution and forms an air pocket at the tip of the syringe. When you slowly allow the plunger to slide back in, the air that has come out of solution stays out of solution. That's why there may seem to be more air in the syringe than when you started.

But something else happens when you pull back on the syringe: Under reduced pressure, water changes from liquid to gas. Bubbles of water vapor form inside the liquid, and the water in the syringe boils at room temperature.

In a clean liquid, it's not easy for small bubbles to form, or nucleate. However, when you pull out the plunger and allow it to snap back in, you create many tiny "seed" bubbles throughout the water. The next time you pull back the plunger, boiling happens more easily, thanks to the nucleation sites provided by these seed bubbles.

One way to understand the importance of seed bubbles is to remember the last time you tried to blow up a balloon. At first, a balloon can be difficult to get started. But once started, it's easier to inflate. The same rule applies to bubbles of water vapor forming in water. If you reduce the pressure and temperature even further, either by using a vacuum pump or by traveling to the surface of Mars, it's possible to have water both boil and freeze at the same time. At this combination of low temperature and pressure-0.01 °C and 0.006 atmospheres, also known as the triple point of water-all three phases of water can exist at the same time.

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Not only does the water in your syringe appear to be boiling, it is boiling. Living as we do at typical atmospheric pressures, we tend to think that water has to be hot to boil. But the transition from liquid to gas can occur not just as the result of increased temperature, but also as the result of decreased pressure.

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Students use redox chemistry to create a battery using aluminum foil, a paper towel soaked in salt water, and activated charcoal

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HHMI Video: Being a carrier for the sickle cell gene provides resistance from malaria

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Description: Sickle-cell anemia is caused by a single nucleotide mutation in the β-globin gene of red blood cells. This creates incorrectly structured proteins and red blood cells with a characteristic "sickle" shape. This harmful mutation does not affect carriers of the disease. However this mutation can be beneficial in certain areas because it offers protection from malarial infections. This phenomenon can be used in a unit on genetics or evolution.

Web Resources: The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection in Humans - HHMI, Sickle-cell Disease - Wikipedia

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Malaria and Sickle Cell Anemia - The Wonder of Science

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Description: Sickle-cell anemia is caused by a single nucleotide mutation in the β-globin gene of red blood cells. This creates incorrectly structured proteins and red blood cells with a characteristic "sickle" shape. This harmful mutation does not affect carriers of th